Why Respawn Will Never Release Apex Legends 2
Since 2019, players have duked it out in "Apex Legends." Four years may not sound like long, but for some games, it'd be about time to think about a sequel. Further, with EA's shutdown of "Apex Legends Mobile," fans may worry about the future of the original battle royale.
With lifetime earnings hitting over $2 billion according to a 2022 earnings call, it would seem that developer Respawn Entertainment has remained on the right track. However, after that earnings call, "Apex Legends" saw what many consider one of its worst seasons. Various changes even had pros discussing how poor the game felt to play. Fans boycotted the title with #Noapexaugust going viral on Twitter.
Respawn seems to have listened, with Season 16 kicking off with the decision not to add a new Legend. Instead, the team reclassed the current roster while making some tweaks to individual Legends. This quality-focused choice goes back to an argument Respawn has made for years about why it will continue to improve "Apex Legends" instead of moving on to "Apex Legends 2." In fact, fans will probably never see a sequel to the battle royale.
Respawn's focus on longevity
"Apex Legends" has shifted a great deal since launch, a design philosophy Respawn continues to prioritize. In an interview with Gamespot in 2023, game director Steve Ferreira pointed out that an "Apex Legends 2" would be the opposite of what the studio wants. To avoid this, Respawn is doing all it can to keep the game alive and changing instead of pushing it to an unplayable place that requires a shutdown. Ferreira also commented that there's no planned endpoint for the battle royale. The goal is for it to continue on through generations of developers.
This echoes the stance that Respawn employees have taken throughout the years. Ferreira gave The Washington Post a similar statement in 2022, explaining that they had no intention to create a sequel or to "sunset" the game. In a 2019 interview with USgamer (via VG247), Drew McCoy, the executive producer at the time, stated that Respawn was "never gonna make an 'Apex 2.'" In fact, they pointed out that seeing a "Season 72" would be killer, and they want to make sure that any changes set "Apex Legends" up for long-term success.
A sequel may not do as well as the original
"Apex Legends" released in 2019, arguably at the height of the battle royale genre. According to Acer Corner, a blog run by tech giant Acer, the battle royale genre exploded in 2017. "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" met with great success, and then "Fortnite" blew everything out of the water. Other successes followed, like "Fall Guys" and "Call of Duty: Warzone." "Apex Legends" thrived in this environment, drawing in 50 million players during its first month.
A sequel would release to an industry in a much different state. Genres naturally rise and fall. A stacked density plot created by Savvy Statistics showed that most video game genres stay at their height for about five years. Considering the battle royale genre has been going strong since 2017, a hypothetical "Apex Legends 2" would likely launch on the tail end of the hype.
This doesn't mean that a battle royale title will never do well again, but this may provide further incentive for developers to work on the original "Apex Legends" instead of creating a sequel.